In the early prior art, lacrosse stick handles were customarily made of wood, usually hickory, shaped by American and Canadian Indians with whom the game originated. Such handles lack uniformity as to quality, strength, weight, and feel in the hands of a player. Additionally, wooden handles were susceptible to failure by fracturing, leaving jagged ends with a resultant extreme danger of severe injury to players in the game so roughly played.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,702 to Hoult dated Nov. 14, 1972 proposes the use of a lacrosse stick handle comprising a composite of an outer plastic tube (illustrated as non-metallic) of octagonal cross-section and an inner core of wood or aluminum. Moreover, many attempts were made to provide handles of metallic construction. However, all attempts were unsuccessful due to inadequate strength or in that they were too heavy, and/or they did not have the desired player feel until the introduction of the tubular metallic handles as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,841 issued July 26, 1977 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,206,918 issued June 10, 1980.
While the metallic handles of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,206,918 and 4,037,841 have many beneficial qualities and have been widely accepted by players, a plastic lacrosse stick handle having the strength and durability characteristics of a metal handle and the handling and production characteristics of a plastic handle has not been available to the lacrosse player until the introduction of the present invention.